Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Premiere 6.5 in 24 Hours

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In response to the reader from South Florida, Teach Yourself Adobe Premiere 6.5 in 24 Hours is for beginning Premiere users. However, as a Digital Video editor (DVE), I would strongly advise that you use an easier program to start learning the basics of non-linear editing (NLE). Adobe Premiere, like many other Adobe products, is a professional and prosumer grade product. It's not intended for Aunt Nancy and Uncle Pete to use for making the yearly Thanksgiving family home video. It has commercial and industrial applications in news rooms, independent film studios, and freelance video production companies, such as my own.

I have been using Premiere for about a year now. I started on Premiere 6 and just upgraded to 6.5 hoping that the claimed "real-time" affects would really work, however I was disappointed. If you're new to the Adobe Premiere 6.5 editing system, I would suggest you pick up this book before any other. It does an excellent job of outlining every aspect of not only the software, but video editing in general.

In the first few "hours" you'll learn about video production. Shooting in "thirds," minding your audience and reserving transitions for times only when they are necessary. In the later chapters or "hours" you'll find great information and an excellent introduction to the editing environment. Everything is spelled out, and each feature is identified in the book.

However, as an experienced videographer and Digital Video editor, I think others will concur. Some of the features in Adobe Premiere are a bit "hokey" and amateur. Get your hands on a copy of Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects Production Bundle if you plan to be putting out any commercial pieces, the effects and "titler" in Adobe aren't really up to your audiences expectations. However, for the home user that just had to get this software title, or the new digital editor trying to familiarize themselves with Adobe's revamped editing environment I would really recommend this book as your first read to Adobe Premiere 6.5

I would like to recommend this book to anyone entering the world of Digital Video Editing. One of the biggest hurdles a beginner encounters is the sparsity of practical, easily digestible, easy to use information and techniques.
Of course there are other good books on the market in additional to this one but as the title says...."Teach Yourself Adobe Premiere 6.5 in 24 Hours" and this book fills a previously vacant slot in the market.
As mentioned earlier it's replete with practical step by step examples which are not only easy to follow but Jeff also provides the relevance, the context, of using specific techniques and methods. It's not enough to simply show what Premiere can do, rather it's crucial to convey a sense of what you can do and when to do it, that is the important difference.
And it's not only about cutting video together, Jeff explores good design practice using the new Adobe Title Designer for broadcast quality titles, he delves into the exploding area of multiple formats including DVD production using the new Adobe MPEG2 exporter, basically he provides a detailed overview of Digital Video Technology using Premiere 6.5 as the engine.
In conclusion I would thoroughly recommend the book to anyone wishing to get up to speed as rapidly as possible in using the power and flexibility of Premiere 6.5. Buy this, you won't be disappointed.

Got me up and running in record time, and does not spend ages on to much detail in the beginning. Also offers those important tips that keeps your production from looking like a beginners, and warns you about the slight bugs and problems with Adobe Premiere and how to solve them. Also asks the important question: Is this logical? Several times and points out the ilogical aspects of Premiere.

This book is exactly what I needed. It goes further than just saying " click this and this then do this " . His explanations are shorts and clear. I really appreciated his movie production and his shooting tips. I think the title should be " Everything you need to realize a good movie ". Althought I wouldn't recommend it for uncle John going to make their vacation video, since there would be too much uneeded information.

If you need to get up and running quickly, this book is for you. It's concise and to the point. Like other books in the 24 Hours series, it is a place to start. Finish it, then start reading the more in depth books on Pemiere and non linear editing.

My only complaint is: the book has black and white illustrations that are small and hard to read.

The book gives you the essential knowledge to quickly ramp up on Premiere 6.5. You learn of the fundamental importance of the transitions palette. It acts as a backbone to your video. One remark by Sengstack is worth repeating. Make the transitions palette full screen. Its elements are an excellent overview of the most important Premiere elements. Like the Clock Dissolve, which lets you dissolve from one image to another. A highly used method.

But the book is more than just a recital of Premiere methods. Equally valuable are the author's suggestions of good usage. Perhaps the main thing to beware is not to use a fancy special effect for its own gee whiz sake. The narrative should always make sense, and within this, you can sparingly use special effects.

This book should be called "Improve Your Premiere 6.5 Skills In 24 Hours". It isn't for a beginner. I'm sure I will find it handy in the future, and it seems to be a good book, but the title is misleading.

If you've ever wondered what all those hundreds of buttons and do, the ones you've never found a use for, this book will explain it all in great detail. The author dissects Adobe Premiere - in fact, a better title for this book would have been 'Inside Adobe Premiere 6.5'

Teach yourself Premiere in 24 hours - as Einstein once said, Time is relative. If you just bought a digital camcorder and you want to splice some clips together, then move on with life, consider a different book such as Adobe Premiere for Dummies. This book makes a great reference manual, but lacks the basics for beginners. This is targeted more towards the advanced video editor with some past experience.

Video effects add 'spice.' Consider the 'meat.' A few fades, cut-away's, and a touch of transition is all it takes to edit quality raw footage. This book covers video and audio effects in great detail and provides a lot of insight into movie making. He does get a little pompous, so don't let him push you around e.g. A/B editing. This book, as well as Adobe Premiere for Dummies, insist you use single track editing. Don't be intimidated. If you understand Adobe's concept of 'layers' in Photoshop, you will find A/B editing more intuitive and easier to use.

You can use this book for Premiere 6.0, as well as 6.5 - unless you're really big on 'titles'. For authoring DVD's, most authoring programs provide mpeg2 encoding, something to consider before spending the money on the upgrade to 6.5.